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Friday, 21 January 2011

Mr Galloway Goes To Holyrood?

George Galloway was MP for a Glasgow seat, hardly the most deprived, and previously won by Roy Jenkins in the heady early days of the SDP. And now, he will be standing for Holyrood in Glasgow, although it must be said that he has been away for quite a while, and that the factions with which he has lately allied himself are in favour of Scottish independence, to which he is opposed. Still, never bet against George Galloway.

Sadly, he has gone a bit Eurofederalist in later years, although he has no truck with the EU as presently constituted, which is the only EU on offer. And he has associated with Trots and Islamists, gloriously using SWP students in 2005 to deliver leaflets in Bengali, which they could not read, denouncing Oona King for being "in favour of abortion and homosexuality". Anyone who can pull off that trick deserves to win. And win he did.

He is still totally pro-life, and, as late night's Question Time demonstrated, classically Old Labour, so that he richly deserves the honour of a Trotskyist rival candidate. There might be the rub: Glasgow is one of the ideal places to secure the election of a classically Old Labour pro-life Catholic, but that is not how Galloway has been presenting himself in recent years. He was never a member of the Campaign Group. He was never even a member of the Tribune Group. At Holyrood, and therefore required to concern himself with domestic policy, people would see why not. That might be no bad thing in itself.